The present disclosure relates to mass spectrometry and more particularly to atmospheric pressure ionization interfaces for mass spectrometers.
Substances may be analyzed to determine whether the substances contain substances of interest, e.g., illicit substances, dangerous substances, etc. Various types of analysis such as, e.g., mass spectrometry, are conducted under low pressure conditions. However, ions from the substance which will be analyzed are generated at higher pressure conditions, for example, at atmospheric pressure.
A variety of atmospheric pressure ionization methods include electrospray ionization (ESI) (Yamashita, M.; Fenn, J. B., J. Phys. Chem. 1984, 88, 4451-4459), atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) (Carroll, D. I.; Dzidic, I.; Stillwell, R. N.; Haegele, K. D.; Homing, E. C. Anal. Chem. 1975, 47, 2369-2373), desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) (Takats, Z.; Wiseman, J. M.; Gologan, B.; Cooks, R. G. Science 2004, 306, 471-473), direct analysis in real time (DART) (Cody, R. B.; Laramee, J. A.; Durst, H. D. Anal. Chem. 2005, 77, 2297-2302), atmospheric pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharge Ionization (DBDI), and electrospray-assisted laser desorption/ionization (ELDI) (Shiea, J.; Huang, M. Z.; Hsu, H. J.; Lee, C. Y.; Yuan, C. H.; Beech, I.; Sunner, J. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 2005, 19, 3701-3704), etc.